A new Russian cruise port to be built in Kaliningrad

The borders of the port of Kaliningrad (Russia) have been extended to include the site for development of a new terminal in the town of Pionersky, writes PortNews agency quoting Victor Olersky, Deputy Minister of Russian Transport and Head of the Federal Agency “Rosmorrechflot”. According to him, the terminal’s construction is to commence in 2017.

International marine terminal Pionersky will be constructed on the basis of the current infrastructure of Pionersky port in Kaliningrad region, located on the Russian coast of the Baltic Sea, bordering Poland in the south and Lithuania in the north. The project involves coastal protection works, dredging, reclamation of land plots, building of breakwaters and new berths for ferries and cruise liners, as well as passenger terminal building, customs and border control offices.

The terminal is expected to accommodate 110 cruise ships and 312 ferries annually, handling 80,000 vehicles and 225,000-250,000 passengers. The facility is expected to be operational by the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Russia.

The cost of the state-financed project is evaluated at RUR 8,565 mln (EUR 132 mln). The project is controlled by “Rosmorrechflot” and its subcontractor Federal State Enterprise “Rosmorport”. The general designer is Russian R&D company “Morstroytechnology LLC”.

Rosmorport tries to secure international partners for investment and further operation of the terminal. Thus, in July 2016 the state enterprise met with MSC Group in Genova, Italy to discuss possibilities of co-operation and promoting the project at the global cruise market. However, up to now no agreement has been officially signed.

On the down side of the project it must be noted that Kaliningrad region is a Russian exclave separated from the main part of Russia by Lithuania and Belarus. Therefore, an excursion trip to Moscow would take 20 hours by train and crossing two countries, which makes quite a difference with a similar trip from another Russian cruise port on the Baltics, St.Petersburg, that takes only 4 hours by a high speed train. This limits the tourist attractiveness of the port to Kaliningrad region.